In an anticlimactic announcement, contestant Lacy Brown was voted off “American Idol” on Wednesday.

And viewers yawned.

Because Brown, who made it to Hollywood last year but just missed the Top 24, was pretty much nobody’s pick to win this year. That, perhaps more than her off-key mess of “Ruby Tuesday” on Tuesday, was the reason she was voted off.

A far worse performance than Brown was judge Randy Jackson’s. Jackson on Wednesday told Brown he was “pleasantly surprised” by her performance, but shown Wednesday that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about because she was in the bottom two, abandoned his own evaluation of her, did a total flip-flop, and said she deserved to be voted off.

And you wonder why this show is spiraling downward?

It also was no surprise that the judges declined to use their one “save” for the season on Brown, especially after her weak, pitchy “save” performance.

I guess it was no surprise, either, that joining Brown in the bottom three were Paige Miles – who, to Jackson’s added embarrassment, he had told “pulled it out” with her laryngitis-weakened “Honky Tonk Woman.”

Also in the bottom three was Tim Urban, whom the judges rightfully savaged for a dipsy reggae version of “Under My Thumb.”

When host Ryan Seacrest was winnowing down the field to the bottom three Wednesday, he had Alex Garcia (who actually was even worse than Urban on his “Gimme Shelter) and asked judge Kara DioGuardi whether they should be in the bottom three. She said it was: “Yikes, guys, it wasn’t good,” she said.

Dioguardi also took it to Katie Stevens, who had been completely horrible on “Wild Horses,” telling her she was inconsistent and had pitch problems.

Area viewers pulling for northeastern Pennsylvania’s Aaron Kelly didn’t have to wait too long to find out he was safe. Just 20 minutes and four contestants into the show, Seacrest announced the 16-year-old Kelly, of Sonestown, Sullivan County, was safe.

Jackson repeated his view that Kelly’s country version of “Angie” reminded him of Justin Timberlake’s voice on “soft, tender moments.”

If Kelly makes it through next week, he will be among the show’s Top 10, meaning he’ll go on the nationwide summer tour with the troupe. That seems pretty much a lock at this point – in addition to the other two who were among the bottom three this week, Kelly is better than several others, including Stevens.

I say look for him to be among the top 6 or 7.

It wasn’t only the contestants and Jackson who were bad Wednesday.

All three guest performers were pretty stinky. David Cook, the 2007 “Idol” winner , did a bad bar-band version of the Rolling Stones’ “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” Australian guitarist Orianthi (who was scheduled to be Michael Jackson’s guitarist on his comeback tour) was flat and tunelesson her “According to You,” and Ke$ha was weak andAuto-Tuned on her “Blah, Blah, Blah” with the group 3OH!3.

How ironic that in this weak, weak season, I wouldn’t have picked them in the Top 12.